Introduction
Since completing an initial CPE programme over the 1998-99 summer I had always intended to complete a second programme. The first time I found CPE to be by far the single most important aspect of five years of preparation for ministry, a second CPE I believed would build on and embed the benefits of the first. In this report I outline a little of the background of CPE, and give you a look into what I have been doing these past few months (15th Nov to 15th Feb).
CPE Roots
Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE) began close to a century ago in the USA in the 1920s. It came about due to the realisation that ministers were poorly equipped to minister in places of extreme pain, and often found it hard to integrate the spiritual and faith dimensions of their work with the actual situations of their parishioners.
From the beginning CPE was an action-reflection method of education which took seriously the need to read the ‘human document’, especially the need to know yourself before being able to help others, and to ensure that knowledge of God and self was understood and that our pastoral actions were consistent with that knowledge.
Thus CPE is an action-reflection method of learning pastoral care under supervision which:
- integrates pastoral work and theology, with relevant medical, psychological and behavioural sciences
- engages participants in reflection about what happens before their eyes
- develops better pastoral relationships by bringing together personal experience, spirituality and theology
- is professional education for ministry, designed to establish and improve ministry practice
The general goal of CPE is to assist participants to begin (or enhance) the development of their personhood and the skills of pastoral care. This includes beginning to understand, or to consolidate and expand, the connections between their experiences in life, ministry, faith and theology.
CPE in Aotearoa – New Zealand
CPE is offered in various centres but not Dunedin; thus the need to go away. A ‘unit’ of CPE consists of 400 hours of supervised learning, spread over ten forty-hour weeks. Each week involves 20 hours pastoral work, in a setting of the participants choosing. In my case this meant being seconded by Kaikorai to St Giles, Te Atatu South, Auckland where I provided summer supply. This proved to be a win-win-win situation in that:
- I had a pastoral context for the CPE programme
- St Giles received consistent ministry involving extensive pastoral contact, teaching and leadership, and
- Kaikorai received some financial compensation for my absence.
In addition to the 20 hours of pastoral work per week I took part in 10 hours of group work, 1 hour of personal supervision, and 9 hours of personal writing, reading and reflection.
Outcomes
My goals in CPE were based upon an old prayer by St. Augustine: ‘Lord, that I may know Thee and that I may know myself’. CPE has helped me in this greatly, and along the way has enabled me to refresh and practice my pastoral skills and to discover greater comfort in diverse pastoral situations. I believe it has provided opportunity to develop a more measured pace in my life, allowing space for the spiritual, the physical, the social, family and self.
The relationship with St Giles has been interesting in that I was specifically invited to come and offer: Leadership, Pastoral Care and insight – while the first and last of these are not areas of particular interest to CPE they did shape my relationships with the elders and to a lesser extent the congregation. In these roles I was given incredible freedom and invited into many homes and had many share their lives: joys and sorrows with me.
Along the way I experienced a number of frustrations and sad situations: relationship difficulties, illness, loss etc. Yet there were also moments of great joy: attending the wedding of a member of the congregation, visiting with and helping the return of a couple to fellowship after 15 years away, seeing the joy of a new immigrant gain residency and hear his testimony of God’s grace, and introducing the congregation to a man who will be their new minister.
CPE has enabled significant personal reflection; at times this process has been painful as it has touched deep hurts, regrets, unforgiveness and vulnerability. Yet it has been here, in weakness that God has challenged me to be the pastor he calls me to be. To come in brokenness – humanness and from there serve by God’s grace and Spirit.
Throughout this time God has been for me a constant presence, prime cheer-leader and encourager. At times I have sensed his disappointment in choices I have made but even then I am reminded that tomorrow is a new day, I can start again, and I can do so in God’s strength, grace and forgiveness.
Conclusion
I have enjoyed walking with the self-disclosing God who created me for relationship, a God who has revealed himself in Scripture, creation and most fully in Jesus. I look to God and see love, creativity, joy, fulfilment and invitation; yet also a jealous God who is grieved by my choosing other priorities and is saddened by the careless, and at times deliberate choices I make: thus I seek to live to please God, to bring a smile to his face, and I seek to encourage others to know God’s love and to discover the freedom, purpose and future there is in Jesus.
CPE has been a self-affirming, ministry enhancing, and a life enriching experience. It has helped me know God, to know self and to understand how God can use me in his name in pastoral ministry.
I am grateful to you my Kaikorai family, Amanda and family, friends and fellow-followers of Christ, the Southern Presbytery, the Knox Centre for Ministry and Leadership, the Best Travel Fund, the people of St Giles and my CPE group (Amy, Lyn, Matai, Meg, Pramod, and Roy) for helping me along the way.
Arohanui
Ian
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